James Gunn: “Rocket is the heart of this movie. If Rocket doesn’t work the movie’s not gonna work.”

James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel’s next big franchise, rests in the hands of a small, anthropomorphic mammal. Gunn recently told Hit Fix:

“Rocket [Raccoon] is the heart of this movie. If Rocket doesn’t work the movie’s not gonna work. If Rocket does work the movie’s gonna work. And so for me, the whole time it’s been about making something that some people could think of as a cartoon or a ridiculous character into a real creature. If a raccoon really was able to walk and talk and make machines and shoot a gun, how would that really happen? How could that occur? And so for me it’s about grounding everything in reality.”

Gunn has no qualms about the Guardians relatively obscurity, in fact he compares it to 2008’s Iron Man film, which itself featured a “B” character as its hero.

“The truth is when Iron Man came out, basically nobody knew who Iron Man was,” he states. “Iron Man…they sold 15,000 copies of ‘Iron Man’ a month. That’s not enough to even make the first million dollars or whatever. So it really isn’t any different…we are starting the wing of Marvel that is the Marvel Cosmic Cinematic Universe. This is Marvel Cosmic. And we’re doing exactly what they did with the first Iron Man.”

You heard it here, I’m calling it now. Rocket Raccoon will be the next Deadpool.

Born and raised in NY, a self titled Nerd Jedi. He met his destiny at 5, with the snap-hiss of Luke's lightsaber in Star Wars. He's never looked back. He wields dual lightsabers, called Common Sense and Humor, and uses them in pursuit of all things Nerd. A husband and father, he still finds time for comics, video games, movies, and shows.
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